Proposed Statement recieved he has got .7 funding

[Sooze2]

Hiya, DS finnally got a proposed statement yesterday but I'm not sure how much time he will be getting from a TA - he currently shares a TA with a statemented ASD (very placid child - the opposite to DS) boy and there is also another TA in the class to help out part time. I phoned the LEA and they said he has been awarded .7 funding and I said how many hours support will he get from that and she said its up to the school how they spend the money.

 

Ive spoken to the parent partnership lady who told me they have had meeting about whats happening with DS next term and they are probably going to put him in with the same boy and TA again with another TA in there as well that he already knows.

 

So, my question is - do I push for him to have one to one support from a TA allocated to him alone or do I accept that they have his best interests at heart. Parents Partnership said he will probably have 3 afternoons with no support which is what he currently has which includes PE where he doesn't cope because he can't cope with team games so needs support there. In the Ed Phyc report she says that he needs one to one adult support in order to do any work and they included hand writing examples where in one he produced very little messy writing (14 words) in the space of half an hour which was unaided. He still distractable, has no concentration and prone to rudness and outbusts which this other boy doesn't do. Should he have an outside trained ASD TA or is it ok to grab a TA from somewhere else in the school.

 

If they are just using the TA's that are already there surely the LEA money isn't going to be spent on him? If he is happy and supported then I am happy but the other boys parents could be a bit annoyed with this eh!

 

In the pack we were sent it says we can have a meeting with the LEA the discuss changes or just the contents of the statement - did you do this and were things clarifyied as to how how and when support is given or is all the done when the the full statement is issued. I feel I should have the meeting because I would like specific points about the need for one to one support written down so that the school have to do it.

 

I thinm my brain is a wee bit scrambled now!!!

 

 

[Kazzen161]

In the pack we were sent it says we can have a meeting with the LEA the discuss changes or just the contents of the statement - did you do this and were things clarifyied as to how how and when support is given or is all the done when the the full statement is issued. I feel I should have the meeting because I would like specific points about the need for one to one support written down so that the school have to do it.

 

At this proposed Statement stage, yes, you do need to make sure that the help is clarified, and then specified in the Statement. If the Statement is finalised while it is still "woolly", then the school can interpret it in any way they wish.

[Sally44]

You can ask the NAS or IPSEA to check over the Proposed Statement.

What you are looking for is how your son needs to be supported in school and for it to be identified on his daily timetable. That support should be specified in terms of hours and staffing arrangements.

If your child needs support during all P.E. lessons then that is what it should state. The school knows how many hours that is and they have to cover that or get extra funding from the LEA.

If he needs support during breaktimes and dinnertimes then that also should be itemised. If he needs a Social Skills Club then that should be itemised and should also state 'who' will run it (it might be a suitably qualified TA who has input from a suitably qualified SALT).

If he struggles with changes in people or environments (and most do), then you can ask for a nominated TA who will be the key person working with your child and liaising with you. Your argument for that is that those with an ASD find changes in staff stressful and it can actually slow down the learning process. Even using different words can change the skill being taught. IE. the OT wrote in her report "a change in the words used as a prompt = a new instruction to an ASD child".

Then once that skill has been learnt that nominated TA should help the child generalise that skill out to other members of staff and into different environments. (That is to counter the LEAs argument that it would be detrimental for your child to work with only one person - that is not what you are asking for. You are asking for one person to explicitly teach the child the skill so that they can build up a working relationship of mutual trust and knowledge of eachother. Then that skill is passed to other adults in school etc.

If any outside professional is going to be giving therapy to your child eg. SALT, then that too should be quantified in terms of hours. Eg. XXX will receive X hours of direct Speech and Language Therapy from a suitably qualfied SALT who will put together a programme that will be observed by his nominated TA who will practice that programme in school on a daily basis. You can itemise the difficulties the child has eg. XXX has difficulties with Social Communication, Expressive/Receptive Speech, giving Narratives, Articulation, Problems with working memory and auditory memory. You can also ask that the professional eg. SALT also dedicates a further X hours per term for liaising with school and parents, putting together the SALT programme, observation and note taking, training of school staff, attending MEP meetings and input into the Social Skills Group and will also produce an up to date report prior to Annual Review.

Every need that any professional has identified should be in part 2 of the Statement and how that need will be met in terms of hours and staffing arrangements should be itemised in Part 3.

If he needs to be taught in small groups, then the size of that group should be specified. Ie. XXX should be taught in groups of XX pupils and will need a suitably qualified TA to ensure that XXX understands what is required of him and will provide such structure that XXX becomes more independent in their work.

 

In our LEA Special Schools tend to have classes of around 7 pupils. So they work with group sizes up to 7. My own son has limited access to whole class instructions because he cannot process what is being said or what he is supposed to do. So most of his work is in small groups with a TA who ensures that all the children know what they should be doing. In a school that has experience and expertise in ASDs they should be able to present the work in such a way that the child does become more and more independent in completing their work. So they do need small group work and 1:1 time with the TA to ensure they know what they should be doing. Then they are encouraged to complete their work independently. As part of that they should also begin to teach them to use visual cue cards such as one to represent "I need help", or "I need timeout". This is encouraging independence. So when you are thinking of what your son needs start with his current level of skills and what structure/environment he needs and what skills he needs to be taught to become more independent. If the EP has written that he needs 1:1 support to complete any work then you are right to ask for that to be included. That is where he is at now. That is the baseline to assess progress at Annual Review ie. XX needed constant 1:1 support in the classroom, now he is beginning to complete his work independently, although he continues to always need to be taught in small groups of XX pupils and needs his nominated TA to always ensure he understands the task... etc

 

The Statement should be written in such a way that there is absolutely no doubt as to who should be doing what. Otherwise you will not be able to challenge the school or LEA that they are not fulfilling their responsibilities under the Statement. That is case law, which you can find on the IPSEA website.

 

[Sooze2]

Thanks Sally, that is exactly what I wanted to hear - I thought I was being too picky. I need everything to be in black and white.

 

Also, in year 3 the teacher was off sick for a long time followed by the TA (she was his ASD freinds TA but used as the whole class TA) his freind and also DS were in a right old state about this as you can imagine with different teachers coming and going each day. Can I ask for something to be put in about sickness cover there too. PIP was saying that he will probably go in with the other boy and his TA and another TA who he will know so that there will always be cover if someone is off sick. Sounds fair enough but is that ok?

 

I saw my freind tonight who works with adults with similar things going on and she said I should insist on a Specialist Learning Support Assistant for him and him alone - is this realistic?

 

Off to find my highlighter now!

[Sally44]

Thanks Sally, that is exactly what I wanted to hear - I thought I was being too picky. I need everything to be in black and white.

 

Also, in year 3 the teacher was off sick for a long time followed by the TA (she was his ASD freinds TA but used as the whole class TA) his freind and also DS were in a right old state about this as you can imagine with different teachers coming and going each day. Can I ask for something to be put in about sickness cover there too. PIP was saying that he will probably go in with the other boy and his TA and another TA who he will know so that there will always be cover if someone is off sick. Sounds fair enough but is that ok?

 

I saw my freind tonight who works with adults with similar things going on and she said I should insist on a Specialist Learning Support Assistant for him and him alone - is this realistic?

 

Off to find my highlighter now!

 

You can have it written into the Statement that your son needs consistency with staffing arrangements as changes cause high levels of anxiety. You can also have it written in that he has a nominated TA (and school will nominate who that is), and that is usually allowed when you make it clear that the intention of that is not so that he only works with one person, but that his nominated TA will built up a relationship of mutual trust that will help with learning new skills and that once that has been learnt with them that the TA will then broaden his experiences by generalising that learnt skill to other TAs and into other environments. And generalisation is something that should always be worked at because otherwise your child can learn a skill with a certain person in a certain classroom, but be unable to use that same skill in any other situation.

I think that if he is in a school where none of the staff have any ASD specific training then it is more likely to ask for a specialist learning support assistant. I think it would be useful to speak with the NAS and IPSEA about that. At my son's school (he is in a mixed mainstream/SEN school), there are 18 children in the class with 1 teacher and 2.5 TAs, one of which is his nominated TA. So she is always in the class, but isn't only working with him. She does all his therapies with him, and oversees him in the classroom and does small group work with him. But he also does things with the other TAs as well, and he is also becoming more independent. If there is anything in any of the reports that would suggest he needs his own specialist TA then ask for it. You did say the EP said he needed constant 1:1 support. And you also mentioned that the support in terms of hours only covers part of his week. I personally would not be happy with that either because if the EP says he needs 1:1 support, at what point in the day is he suddenly going to be independent? His difficulties will be present throughout the day.

I also asked about school environment. Are you intending to keep him where he is. Is he at a mainstream school. Also how old is he. If, in the future, it becomes clear that remaining mainstream is not an option, do you know what the alternatives your LEA has? I did find that having started in the mainstream system it was very difficult to get him moved to an Enhanced Resource school because all the infants in ER took up the places in junior ER. So we ended up going to tribunal to secure a placement.

[Sooze2]

Yes its the suddenly being independant thing that gets to me, I spoke to the teacher the other day because he is starting to suffer from his usual "near the end of term stress" and I thought I would warn her and the teacher said he's been doing ok in class - it went a bit like this "today he did maths and worked with a certain teacher, for one peice after she had helped him get started he did nearly all the work on his own! It was as if she was making the point that he worked alone but she didn't realise that how it came across was like this - "isn't it amazing that he did some work on his own because he doesn't usually - aren't you chuffed?" I actually felt a bit sad about it because its so obvious from her comments that he can't work alone at all. A few days before the TA said he was just like a normal child now - I know there have been a lot of meetings about him in school as to how they are going to arrange classes next term so its as if they are letting me know that he will be on his own next term because they want him split from the other lad - so glad the statement is going in in the knick of time.

 

I will go for the meating with the LEA I think, I'll phone on Monday. Like you say I need to push for the 1:1 TA. I also need to find out if any of the TA's in the school are ASD trained then don't I, how do I do that - I could ask the LEA couldn't I as they must know that.

 

There are 36 children in his class, one full time TA and one part time brought in because he (and another boy) was causing problems and needing so much attention. I worry that next term it will be the same ratio of teachers/TA when clearly that isn't enough. 36 kids in the class how bad is that!!!

 

He is 9 by the way - 10 in October. Tis very sad, my daughter wrote 2 sides in her note book last night when making up a story in bed before she went to sleep - her writting is years ahead of his and she is only 6!

 

 

 

Thanks a lot, you are lovely. x

Edited June 27, 2009 by Sooze2

[Kazzen161]

You will need to clarify what "ASD trained" means. I am not ASD trained (though I have 19 years experience as a parent of an Aspie and have gone on courses as a parent). I would hope I am just as good a TA, as a TA who has been on a course that may have lasted for an hour or a day.

 

Often getting the right personality (of TA) is more important than getting a trained TA - someone who likes your son and is keen to learn is better than someone who does not like your son and thinks they already know everything there is to know about ASD.

 

An ASD trained TA will probably be more expensive than a standard TA, so the 0.7 funding will not stretch as far.

[Sooze2]

You will need to clarify what "ASD trained" means. I am not ASD trained (though I have 19 years experience as a parent of an Aspie and have gone on courses as a parent). I would hope I am just as good a TA, as a TA who has been on a course that may have lasted for an hour or a day.

 

Often getting the right personality (of TA) is more important than getting a trained TA - someone who likes your son and is keen to learn is better than someone who does not like your son and thinks they already know everything there is to know about ASD.

 

An ASD trained TA will probably be more expensive than a standard TA, so the 0.7 funding will not stretch as far.

 

Sorry if I offended Kazzen, I was just bandieing ideas around to see what I should ask for if anything to be honest. The current TA in his class is totally lovely and helps him enormousely mostly because she is human and like a lovely funny mummy, who tickles him if he starts zoning out or taking things to seriousely and I have no idea or care what her training is because she is so good for him in the happiness stakes.

 

I am worried about the thought of going to the LEA meeting really so I am trying to get it clear in my head what and what not to say because I know I will end up stuttering when faced with all those authority figures!

 

[Kazzen161]

No offence taken - just pointing out that "ASD trained" has it's limitations.